The Donaldsonville teammates disagree repeatedly over whose vertical, speed, hands or route-running is most impressive, but the camaraderie is evident throughout the discussion.

Both wide receivers quickly shift gears at the names of former Tigers Devon Breaux and Leondre James, though, and begin heaping heartfelt praise on the duo that helped spearhead the building tradition of which Gant and Sullivan are now the leaders.

The current Donaldsonville veterans — rarely, if ever, at a loss for words — almost can't credit Breaux enough for his leaping ability, both against defensive backs on the football field and to Tulane, where in 2012 he became the first Tiger to sign with a Division I FBS program since brothers Jarvis and Jason Green joined LSU in 1997.

"They helped us a lot because they took a leadership and made us wanna do what they're doing," Gant says. "They've got colleges coming for them, and that made me wanna do that too. We wanted to be like them, so they set an example for us."

Breaux recognized the significance of his college opportunity — not just own his own life, but potentially on the futures of the talented players he saw coming behind him through the Donaldsonville program.

"When I signed, it was kind of a blown-away type thing for the school," he says. "It opened a lot of eyes. For guys like Leondre, Jaquel and Stephen, it kind of made it seem more real that they could do what I did. Before I signed, everybody wasn't really aware that coming from Donaldsonville you could do that, so it opened some eyes ... When I was a freshman and sophomore, nobody was really getting recruited, and then once colleges started coming, then they started recruiting some other people too."

James followed suit this spring, receiving advice from Breaux throughout the recruiting process and ultimately signing with the Green Wave, as well.

Even as National Signing Day approached, what Donaldsonville players such as Gant, Sullivan and quarterback Tyler Brown could accomplish in the future remained as obvious a source for excitement for James as maybe any other.

"It means a lot to me because during the season, a lot of the younger players, they helped me do everything that I did," he said. "Like our young quarterback Tyler Brown, he stepped up and helped me and threw the ball to me, and I helped them, so this is just continuing that relationship."

That mindset has been in place at least since the days Breaux was quarterbacking the Tigers and slinging passes to then-sophomore James and then-freshman Gant.

"It's really been like a big brother, brotherly love type thing ever since I was in high school," Breaux says. "Me, Leondre and Jaquel, we all said we were gonna get each other to the next level. If I was gonna get big numbers, then those two were gonna get big numbers, and if they got big numbers, I was gonna get big numbers, so we felt like what ever we would do, we were gonna help each other out, regardless."

The message is typically to stay positive, focused and out of trouble, take care of academics and be a leader for the younger Tigers, he says.

But Gant and company understand that, for all the helpful advice Breaux and James might still provide, the responsibilities now rest with themselves to help younger talented players such as receivers Jamal Dunn and Norman Simmons.

"It's a great feeling," Sullivan says. "I used to look at Leondre, and now they're looking at me, so now you just have to take on the responsibility and just go from there."

Gant and Sullivan have already left their hand- and cleat-prints across a slew of Donaldsonville stat sheets and made big impressions on college coaches across the country.

Sullivan committed to LSU in February and also mentions an offer from Hawaii among the programs to have shown him interest.

Gant continues to weigh through a stack of offers he said includes Tulane, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, Southern, ULM, Cincinnati, Memphis and Southern Miss.

"For us, they look at us as their role models, so it's our opportunity to go out there to get colleges to look at us, so they can look at the school," Gant says. "And that makes it better for the younger boys coming up under us. With us being some of the best athletes on the team, we've got the opportunity to go out there to colleges and camps and stuff and get Donaldsonville on the map."

But the legacy and mark the current Tigers leave on the program all remains to be seen, they say.

"That's still all to be written right now," Gant says. "See now, I haven't really been playing right now because I'm on a hamstring injury right now, so when I get back Monday, just we've gotta go to work and work hard."

The ability to continue the growing string of Donaldsonville standouts heading to Division I, and particularly FBS, colleges will certainly play a role.

Like Breaux and James, Gant and Sullivan hope to not only personally join that list, but also prepare their teammates to do so.

Not a day goes by that Breaux doesn't consider the significance of it all.

"Really, it's every day I think about it, because I'm one of not many to make it to the next level," he says. "It's just a few of us that come from Donaldsonville and other places like that, so I have to really remember where I came from and use that to motivate me."